Gwen Stacy
College Life Gwen fi rst appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965). Peter Parker meets Gwen while both study as undergraduates at ESU Initially, with Aunt May in the hospital, Peter feels troubled and ignores her advances, and in return, she feels insulted by his aloofness. She dates both Flash Thompson and Harry Osborn while pining for Peter. Gradually, however, a romance develops; Gwen, a science major, seems to appreciate Peter's intellectual personality, different from that of jocks like Flash and Harry. In the comic books, she is Peter Parker's second love-- their relationship begins almost immediately after a relationship between Peter and Betty Brant ends. Their relationship almost ends as it begins. A mind-controlled Captain Stacy gets into a fight with Peter, which Gwen observes. Thinking Peter attacked her father, she halts the relationship. Gwen eventually learns the truth and she and Peter reconciled. Peter would frequently feel insecure whenever he saw Flash Thompson with Gwen, and many misunderstandings ensued. Their romance becomes more complicated when her father, Police Captain George Stacy, gets killed by falling debris from a battle which involved Spider-Man and Doc Ock (The Amazing Spider-Man #90). Gwen blames Spider-Man for that event, which sets back their relationship for a while. Gwen leaves for Europe to deal with her loss. She tries to get Peter to propose to her and convince her to stay, but his guilt stops him from doing so. By the time he changes his mind, she is already gone. Peter goes to London to see Gwen, but has to go into action there as Spider-Man. Realizing she will put two and two together if she sees Peter and Spider-Man in London, Peter leaves without seeing Gwen. Gwen eventually realizes her error in trying to pressure Peter into marriage, so she returns to New York and they get back together. the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn, who has identified Peter Parker as Spider-Man) holds Gwen Stacy captive on a tower of the George Washington Bridge. Soider-Man arrives to fight the Green Goblin, and when the Goblin throws Gwen Stacy off the bridge, Spider-Man catches her by her leg with a string of web. He initially thinks he has saved her, but when he pulls her back onto the bridge, he realizes she has already died. Peter is unsure whether the whiplash from her sudden stop broke her neck or if the fall killed her, but he blames himself for her death regardless. Ultimate Gwen Stacy In the Ultimate universe, Gwen Stacy first appears as a teenage girl at Peter's high school. In stark contrast to her classic counterpart, Gwen is often strong-willed and rebellious and often dresses in punk style, yet still with her fiery temper. In her first appearance she gives a rousing speech on 'super powers' in today's societies; in the next issue she pulls a knife on Kong, a classmate who was bullying Peter. She is suspended from school temporarily. Gwen becomes friends with Peter after that (at one point stopping by his house for help after a possible suicide attempt), which leads Mary Jane Watson to believe that Gwen is vying for his affections. Gwen is later taken in by Aunt May after her father, police captain John Stacy, is killed by a burglar wearing a Spider-Man costume. Her estranged mother does not want to take her in. Her living in the Parker house creates more tension between Peter and Mary Jane, and leads to their temporary break-up. Peter's relationship with Gwen is further complicated by her hatred of Spider-Man, whom she blames for her father's death. Like Peter, Gwen is an outsider with no friends and she has expressed a desire to be accepted by her peers. When Peter finds his friend Eddie Brock from his early childhood days, Gwen confides in him about her feelings of isolation. Eddie then tries to kiss her and Gwen is furious due to the age difference and the fact that Eddie isn't taking the fact that her father has recently died into consideration while he pursues her. Peter returns to their home later that night to find Gwen sitting on the couch in a bad mood. She explains what happened and how she believes Eddie to be a bad person. Gwen has a lot of pent up anger which she directs at Spider-Man so when she eventually learns that Peter is Spider-Man she is furious and waits all night for him to return home. When he does, the angry Gwen pulls her father's gun on him. Fortunately, he manages to convince her that he is not to blame for her father's death. Gwen runs off but returns shortly afterwards, apologizing for her behavior. She explains that she is just really mad at everything at the moment and that she wouldn't have really shot him, a fact Peter already knew because his spider sense didn't go off despite Gwen's wrath. Gwen then agrees to keep his secret. Gwen Stacy dies in Ultimate Spider-Man #62. Initially Bendis wanted to avoid killing Gwen Stacy because he felt it would be redundant. However, as time went on, Bendis realized she had to die.14 Before her death, she made peace with Mary Jane and assured her that she never had romantic feelings for Peter, and that she considered him just as a friend (or, in her words, "her superhero little brother"). She is killed by Carnage, a vampiric monster made by the splicing of genetic material from Peter Parker, his father, and Dr. Curt Connors Although Peter is not in the area when she dies, he still feels some responsibility for her death, as he allowed Dr. Connors to use his genetic material for experimentation. His guilt makes him decide to retire as Spider-Man for a while, but eventually he takes up his hero identity when his responsibility for the innocent becomes too great to overlook. Gwen returns later as a clone of the carnage symbiote, during an exchange between Peter and Gwen, Eddie Brock comes and tries to attack Aunt May to get into the house, and retake his Symbiote. In a rage, Spider-Man engages Venom on a nearby rooftop, and Gwen follows behind. During the fight, Gwen is shown to be able to use her Symbiote to fight off Eddie, but Eddie reabsorbs his symbiote along with the Carnage symbiote, rendering Gwen Stacy an average girl. After SHIELD intervenes, and has her checked, Peter questions Iron Man about how Gwen isn't the real article. Iron Man reassures him that if she is biologically 100% Gwen Stacy, and has her mind, then who are they to say she's anything but Gwen Stacy. Following this, however, SHIELD Director Danvers states that Gwen will remain in SHIELD custody, Peter and May argue for her to come back to live with them,with Tony Stark supporting the Parkers. In Ultimate Spider-Man #129, the Parkers are now helping to rebuild Gwen's life. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man In Ultimate Comics, Gwen lives with Peter along with his hero friends, Iceman and Human Torch. Peter and Gwen are dating. What happened between him and MJ is unrevealed. Category:Allies